Dog Saved From Ice

It was just after 7:30 a.m. that Jim Rogan, Of Dyer, Ind., spotted the dog while driving by and stopped to see if he could get it to come ashore.

The dog eluded capture over and over. It kept going out to the middle of the harbor, not far from open water under the Lake Shore Drive bridge, near Marquette Drive. So he called 911.

About the same time, two women, Arianne and Roseann Melkowski, were heading to court and they, too, called 911. They’re animal lovers, they said, and couldn’t stop to help but they felt sorry for the dog, which seemed confused, running from one side of the harbor to the other.

Three hours later, done with court, they were passing by again and pulled into La Rabida Children’s Hospital, which overlooks the harbor, and the ordeal had just ended.

Both were thrilled to see the dog had been pulled to safety.

For three hours, the dog eluded divers and police, and at one point it couldn’t even be spooked off the harbor ice by a low-flying Chicago Fire Department helicopter that came over to the harbor from a nearby high-rise fire.

Divers edged onto the ice, roped together, trying to get the animal to head to shore, but each time they tried, it would go farther out, toward open water.

Finally, it seemed to have had enough and headed toward rescue personnel on the shore line. It was tranquilized and pulled to safety.

The dog did not have a collar, tags, or an identification microchip, so workers were still trying to determine late Tuesday who owns the dog.